It’s not like he didn’t like her. He did. Except her uncertainty about him.
He didn’t care for that part.
She smiled a genuine grin at Dane before turning a quizzical stare to Travis. That quizzical stare made him swallow harder and turn on what he hoped was charming sizzle. The smile, the extended eye contact—it worked on most women.
Not on Rachel.
She rolled her eyes at him. Legit, she rolled her eyes like he was an eight-year-old friend of the boys—and not one she particularly liked.
“We need to talk to you about this summer,” Travis said, using the smooth tone that sounded like a good takeoff felt in a small aircraft.
“It’s important,” Dane confirmed.
“If it’s about your family’s summer pep rally, the answer is?—”
“Don’t say no right away this time,” Dane said before she could continue.
“Evelyn sent you.” She observed Dane and crossed her arms under her breasts. The movement lifted them a little and—Eyes are up there, buddy.
Rachel didn’t catch his wandering gaze because she was all eyes on Dane.
“Of course she sent us,” Dane replied, the answer not nearly as smooth as what Travis would’ve delivered. “She knew you’d say no to her, so she sent us.”
“She sent you?” Arms still crossed. Not a good sign.
“Yes, she asked us to formally request that you join us on the family summer sabbatical.” Dane sounded so much like their mother when he gave the formal request, Travis nearly broke a stitch in his side trying to keep from laughing.
“That’s why you’re here, too?” Rachel turned her attention to Travis, using that look of hers that could make him spill any secrets he’d ever thought of keeping. She’d perfected it with the boys but wielded it like a sword. The slight tilt of her head, eyes turned to slits, and the raised eyebrows that made his collar itch.
The principal at his elementary school used to have a similar expression when he’d gotten hauled in there on playground candy-trafficking charges.
She cleared her throat.
Right. What was the question again? He nodded because he probably would’ve nodded to anything that she said right then.
“No.” She smiled at Travis this time. Not just Dane. That was nice. Even if the word coming from her lips was no. “Thank you for the invite. But, no. That’s Gavin’s family time.”
“But we like you better,” Travis said, clearly still under the spell of the Rachel attention, since the vortex of Gavin’s mention hadn’t sucked the happiness from the room.
“You should tell him that. He’ll be back for the party on Saturday.” Rachel grinned at Travis, but this wasn’t a cheery grin like Dane usually got. This was calculated. Purposeful. It was…Travis stepped back because, man, it felt like an invitation.
Rachel never gave him any looks that were inviting.
Maybe he was coming down with something, because nothing felt right.
Thus another step back.
“Travis?” Rachel asked, the question drawing his gaze to hers. “You okay?”
“Fine. I’m fine,” he replied. The sweat he felt forming in his hands had everything to do with Brady’s persistent grip, and nothing to do with Brady’s mother.
If he took another step back, he’d bump right into the Shut the Front Door sign.
She arched an eyebrow and pressed her lips into a line. She didn’t believe he was fine. Rachel was intuitive like that. He’d say it was a mom thing, but, really, it was a Rachel thing.
When Gavin and Rachel had first gotten together and Rachel was pregnant with the boys, Travis wasn’t around much. Gavin spent way too much time back then arguing about Travis’s choice of work hours, the women he dated, the cars he bought.
And whatever Gavin had said to Rachel about Travis, it had stuck, since she also wanted the bare minimum to do with him. And, yeah, it’d taken a little longer for him to figure himself out than other adults, but his choices hadn’t hurt anyone. Well…anyone but him. He’d broken the shit out of his ankle in a Tijuana dune buggy.
